For my Walden colleagues.  My "influential people" is part of my main board on my blog page.  Just scroll down and you will see it.  Thanks, Kim

It always seems that when you finally get everyone together to team that something comes up.  This is just an unwritten law in the universe.  This week was no exception.  I finally was able to connect with a behavior specialists to come observe my T-Th-F am class and of course the main student I wanted her to observe was not there.   If you don't first succeed; try, try again!  This weeks main idea for my learnining was understanding how all people involved in a child's life influence their lives.  This wrang particularly true for one of my students this week.  Her family became homeless.  Talk about how important it is to have everyone working together! 

My Family

This is my family.  Myself, my husband Mark and our kids; Haley (16), Katie (14), Nate (13) and Abby (11).  We have a great time together.  We love to explore, hunt for agates and enjoy a pretty laid back lifestlyle.  My husband is the biggest kid of the family which often proves quite challenging when we are raising teenagers!  Our family has also had another challenge; our daughter, Haley, was diagnosed with Leukemia last spring.  Although, this was one of our worst nightmares come true there have been amazing blessings that have come out of this terrible situation.  Haley, herself, has really grown into an AMAZING young woman and I couldn't be more proud of her.  As a family this experience has only made us all stronger.

A Great Book!

I love this book!





Although, this could be considered an adult book as much as a children's book, I love the message.  The book has the fun rhyming style of Dr. Seuss while incorporating such a simple message about lifes ups and downs and the importance of perserverance.  Young children pick up on the concrete meanings while adults are drawn to the hidden meanings.  A classic!

A Quote

The world knows how to straighten out a spoiled child but never makes it up to a child deprived. ~Robert Brault

This is one of the quotes regarding childhood that I truly beieve in.  I believe it also embodies the spirit of Early Childhood Education.  Not only do we now know that there is a critical time of brain development for young children but the field is also focusing more and more on the aspects and implications of a child's social development.  All of this plays an such an important part in the growth of a child and if they not nurtured as well as given opportunities to grow and develop cognitively while they are young we, as a society, will nevery be able to give those opportunities to them again.

I also love the quote from Walt Disney below that I have on my blog.  I am definitely a person that believes we can not give up the fun of life for the seriousness that life can often times bring.